It took until 1992 for the World Health Organisation to drop the classification of same-sex attraction as a mental illness.
It was only in 1988 that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought in the widely-condemned Section 28, which barred local authorities from ‘intentionally promoting homosexuality’. YouGov polling shows more than seven in ten Brits now support LGBTQ+ people, something that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.’ ‘As we mark these landmark moments, we rightfully reflect upon how far LGBTQ+ rights have come over the past five decades – from same-sex marriage to the abolition of Section 28. ‘The Stonewall riots and the UK’s first pride march were both a celebration of LGBTQ+ lives but also a protest about the injustices that our communities faced’, she explained. Sasha Misra, the Stonewall charity’s associate director of communications and campaigns, suggests to .uk that much of the modern progress on LGBTQ+ rights can be traced back years. In the 1980s, as stigma around AIDS set in, Chris Smith became the first openly gay MP – 10 years after Maureen Colquhoun came out as the first lesbian MP. Some of the people who were at the Stonewall Inn on the night the bar was raided by police gather for a photo shoot 50 years later (Picture: Getty Images)
